In the first session after lunch, Simon Vaughan from Cardiff University is presenting on its work with Connections in education.

Here’s my notes on Simon’s session:
– Emerging countries are adopting and using social networking tools more than developed countries. In Africa especially, there is very high penetration of mobile devices. Impact on student education? Top request – to connect students with the alumni and overseas universities.
– The connected student – they want online systems that “know them” and are secure.
– Cardiff University:
– … 27,000 students, 6000 employees. Research-led univerity. Geographically dispersed campus.
– … email is the standard collaboration tool. Need access to relevant information.
– … challenges:
– … … (1) a university has people across all age groups, and with preferred ways of working. Eg., 70-year old professor with chalk and a board, down to the young students who want to use IM and Twitter.
– … … (2) students expect to be always connected, and full access on any device. They want to be able to test out new ideas without asking permission. They work in communities – and they want the ability to create communities on the fly. They have high expectations about the future. They want information quickly.
– … … (3) students expect tools that enable connection with others, across and beyond the university, from multiple devices, and to collaborate better than using email. They want 24×7 access to key systems.

– essentially: because today’s students have deep experience with Facebook, Twitter, and other ways of working together, if we want to get them into our university, we have had to change the way we deliver education. And by implication – we will have to keep doing this in the years ahead as new technologies come along.